Introduction
============

.. _intro_learning_resources:

Learning Resources
------------------

Arcade provides documentation for different experience levels and
learning styles.

Getting Started
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

* The :ref:`skill_tree` is a suggested learning order for beginners
* The :ref:`main-page-tutorials` are guided introductions to new skills
* The :ref:`example-code` help tinkerers get started quickly
* The manual in the left-hand sidebar has overviews of concepts and features

Experienced Developers
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For more experienced developers, Arcade provides two forms of
API documentation:

* The :ref:`arcade-api` follows Arcade's module layout and features
* The :ref:`quick_index` is a single-page search tool

Community driven
----------------

Arcade is a community-driven project, and we rely on support from users like you.
You don't need to be an expert programmer or game developer to contribute.

* More information about ways to contribute: :ref:`how-to-contribute`.
* Also see :ref:`community-locations` for more information about where to find the
  community.

History
-------

The Python Arcade Library was created by Paul Vincent Craven. Paul was a professor
of Computer Science at Simpson College in Iowa. He created the library
to teach his students how to program games in Python. The first public pre-release
was in March 2016.

There is no question the focus of the library is on education. It's designed to
be easy to use and to teach programming concepts.

The library has grown since then and is now used by people all over the world.
The library is mostly used in schools and by hobbyists, but have also been used in
various other settings such as visualization, simulation and prototyping. As the
library grows it's starting to be used in more professional settings as well.

Notable Releases

* First public pre-release in March 2016
* First stable release 1.x in May November 2016
* 2.0 release in 2019
* 2.4 release in 2020
* 2.6 release in 2021 through 2022
* 3.0 release in 2024